Medical electrical leads include one or more conductors that extend within an elongate insulative body and are coupled to one or more electrodes supported by the body. The one or more electrodes are typically mounted to a distal portion of the lead body and the distal portion positioned, or implanted, in a patient's body to provide electrical stimulation, for example, within a pericardial space, to provide restorative cardiac stimulation, or, within an epidural space, to provide pain-relieving spinal stimulation.
The portion of the lead body that supports the one or more electrodes should be configured to, at minimum, allow each electrode surface to make contact with a target stimulation site, support each joint between the one or more electrodes and the corresponding conductor, and, in the case of more than one electrode, electrically isolate the electrodes and conductors from one another. Electrode assemblies have been developed, for example, within the context of the exemplary stimulation scenarios referenced above, wherein a ‘flattened’, or relatively thin, lead body portion, for example, having a patch or paddle configuration, supports one or more electrodes, preferably an array of electrodes, that are disposed along a major surface of the lead body portion. However there is still a need for electrode assembly features that improve the routing of conductors from the electrodes.